THE WEEKEND STARTS HERE:

...with ELTON JOHN! Half of a live show captured by the OGWT on Christmas Eve, 1974.  Your setlist includes: "Grimsby" (incompete), "Rocket Man," "Goodbye Yellow Brick Road," "Daniel," Grey Seal,"  "Bennie And The Jets," "Lucy In The Sky With Diamonds," "I Saw Her Standing There," "Don't Let The Sun Go Down On Me," "Honky Cat," "Saturday Night's Alright For Fighting," "Crocodile Rock," "The B^tch Is Back," "Your Song," and "White Christmas."

BILLY CORGAN played a Tiny Desk Concert.

JOANNA WARREN plays an acoustic Stereogum Session.

ROBERT FINLEY, a self-taught bluesman and soulful vocalist from Bernice, Louisiana, streams Goin’ Platinum!

NICHOLAS KRGOVICH streams In An Open Field.

THE AUTUMN DEFENSE (incl Wilso's John Stirratt and Pat Sansone) shared a mixtape at Aquarium Drunkard.

WOLF ALICE covers Eartha Kitt's "Santa Baby."

DAMIEN JURADO covers Vince Guaraldi’s yuletide classic, “Christmas Time Is Here.”

OKKERVIL RIVER shares  “What Friends Do.”  It sounds weirdly like the Young Fresh Fellows or Minus 5.

CRAIG FINN covers The Mountain Goats' "Fault Lines."

TOM JONES covers the Elmore James blues burner "Done Somebody Wrong".

THE RAVEONETTES' 2011 video for 2001's "The Christmas Song.

RADIOHEAD confirmed that they will not be attending next year’s Rock And Roll Hall Of Fame ceremony, even if they are to be inducted.

THE BEASTIE BOYS' Ad-Rock believes sexual misconduct allegations against his father.

THE 50 BEST SONGS of 2017, according to Rolling Stone.  Also the albums.

NOW SHOWING: There are no new wide releases this weekend.

ZACH SNYDER will continue to be involved with the DCU, but will he direct another DC movie for Warner Bros.?

MATT LAUER apologized for some of his behavior and admits there is “enough truth” to the allegations to feel ashamed in a statement timed for the TODAY show broadcast. Meredith Vieira once brought up a “bag of sex toys” she once found in Lauer's office — and you gotta see how Matt tap danced out of the awkward convo.

RUSSELL SIMMONS is accused of sexually assaulting screenwriter Jenny Lumet.  He will step down from the leadership of the businesses he's founded.

BETTE MIDLER says Geraldo Rivera drugged and 'groped' her in the 1970s and never apologized.

JESSICA CHASTAIN talks post-Weinstein Hollywood.

MEGHAN MARKLE: The Prince's fiancée won't be fast-tracked to UK citizenship.

CHRIS EVANS & JENNY SLATE, together again?

JIM NABORS, the Alabama-born comic actor who starred as TV’s dim but good-hearted Southern rube Gomer Pyle and constantly surprised audiences with his twang-free operatic singing voice, died Thursday. He was 87.

THIS LONG-LOST DOG gets a surprise reunion.

DOGS are brainier than cats, according to a new study.

NYC RATS can be DNA mapped as uptown and downtown rats.

DINOSAURS: Fluffier than we thought.